Cycle time management during production ramp-up

Aggressive capacity ramp rate of a semiconductor wafer fabrication is vital for the commercial success of the enterprise. Basic requirements are short and stable production cycle times to timely qualify equipment and to provide acceptable yield. Therefore, in the ramp-up environment which is characterized by high variability and uncertainty, an adequate methodology is required to properly manage the conflict of short cycle times and fast throughput increase. This paper presents a methodology to manage cycle time by closely monitoring and limiting the work in process (WIP), by means of the so-called "WIP caps". Used consequently, this methodology allows the ramp rate to accelerate as soon as the factory performance enables this while keeping cycle times under control. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.